2025 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[Wouter]

Long interview with Helmut Marko. "Marko: ‘A lot is coming together for Max at the moment"

https://www.oe24.at/sport/motorsport/fo ... /632327526

Some Translated quotes:

oe24: The 40-second lead of winner Piastri over Verstappen ...
MARKO: ... is really a lot, and it would have been even more if Max hadn't driven ahead of the McLaren on the first few laps and slowed them down. As George Russell's third place shows, Mercedes is even stronger. So we have to come up with something.
---------------
oe24: What are the indications that things will be better at the next GP in Imola?
MARKO: That we get new parts. The question is whether this will bring us closer to McLaren. They have an incredible car, which is insanely strong in its complexity. Max's pole position - we have to be honest - only came about because both McLaren and Antonelli in the Mercedes made mistakes on their last attempt.
-------------------
oe24: But I'm sure you're also happy for Yuki Tsunoda that he scored his first point just before Hadjar.
MARKO:Yes, Yuki is getting better and better. He is the first (Verstappen) team-mate to get a taste of Max's performance. Unfortunately, he still makes mistakes when the pressure increases.
-------------------
oe24: Finally, please allow me one more question regarding your future: you have mentioned Sebastian Vettel as one of your possible successors ...
MARKO: That was once an idea of mine. But it has nothing to do with being ready to talk about, we're still a long way off. I don't know who wants to retire me at the end of the year. I certainly don't have any plans to do that yet: You snooze, you lose ...

[Vettel165]

If Max wins this title it would go down as the best drive/season by a driver in this century. I give it maybe 3-5% of a chance for now. Piastri winning the title about 70% and Norris 25%. The only way to turn around this season is to have working updates and hoping Mclaren will lose some pace after TD. And then we need some consecutive races in which Max wins it all, to lower the gap in the standings. Highly unlikely, but I will never stop believing...

[venkyhere]

If Max wins this title it would go down as the best drive/season by a driver in this century. I give it maybe 3-5% of a chance for now. Piastri winning the title about 70% and Norris 25%. The only way to turn around this season is to have working updates and hoping Mclaren will lose some pace after TD. And then we need some consecutive races in which Max wins it all, to lower the gap in the standings. Highly unlikely, but I will never stop believing...

may the force be with you

[organic]

The TD & generic floor updates won't be enough. As I've been saying since Australia already, they need to emulate the tyre treatment otherwise it's a wrap

[AR3-GP]

Autoracer seems to be sure that Red bull is on to it.

Even Mclaren's advantage in qualifying is dictated by it. They are the only team setting purple third sectors (occasionally Leclerc for a related reason), because their tires stay at optimum temperatures over the entire lap.

[organic]

https://i.postimg.cc/MT9pccZp/image.png

Autoracer seems to be sure that Red bull is on to it.

Tomlinson (MK based red bull engineer who used to be in trackside team until 2025) also tweeted in a reply claiming that the amus article about red bull trying to figure out what McLaren are doing using thermal imaging etc was "old news". Together with Autoracer info maybe red bull are close to implementing a solution

[Farnborough]

Each of the teams hold an image library of competitors with anything available in public view fair game. Updated continually throughout running etc.

Many camera can be configured sans IR filter over image matrix to give static or moving ir images easily, that's without alerting others to its use. Just looks like any other camera and lens used around sports.

[Wouter]

https://i.postimg.cc/MT9pccZp/image.png

Autoracer seems to be sure that Red bull is on to it.

Even Mclaren's advantage in qualifying is dictated by it. They are the only team setting purple third sectors (occasionally Leclerc for a related reason), because their tires stay at optimum temperatures over the entire lap.

.
I searched for this Tweet but I couldn't find it, also not at his answers.
From which date is it?

[AR3-GP]

After reading the recent developments, I'm not convinced anymore that we will see these McLaren like ducts in Imola, unless they are only a first part of a bigger package in that zone. Reading between the lines of different sources it seems they are working in that area so Imola seems to me too early to come with a definitive solution.

Imola might be early, but I've heard that Red Bull have been studying this since pre-season (and clearly they would have had some indications from last year). Since this kind of technical solution will also carry over to the 2026 car, I fully expect that Red Bull are committing maximum resources to it.

[AR3-GP]

https://i.postimg.cc/MT9pccZp/image.png

Autoracer seems to be sure that Red bull is on to it.

Even Mclaren's advantage in qualifying is dictated by it. They are the only team setting purple third sectors (occasionally Leclerc for a related reason), because their tires stay at optimum temperatures over the entire lap.

.
I searched for this Tweet but I couldn't find it, also not at his answers.
From which date is it?

It was from yesterday. This link: https://x.com/SmilexTech/status/1919823985891553704

[f1isgood]

I was looking at last stint race pace from last year to this year. McLaren have improved by ~1 second, Red Bull by ~0.7 to ~0.8 seconds. There's really not much more to see. Red Bull were 4 tenths slower last year in the last stint and now overall it makes sense that they were 6 to 7 tenths slower regardless of whatever tire cooling magic McLaren have come up with.

TLDR, we were slower last year and failed to not only catch up but also got out-developed even more.

I am not sure but have people considered the fact that Red Bull car ceiling might just be this lol?

[f1isgood]

Horner out, Oakes in

That's the current rumour anyway . would be better not to have a sexpest running the team

Why suddenly? Seems so out of context. Happy to take Oakes in if he can bring in 1s of race pace performance

[Wouter]

https://i.postimg.cc/MT9pccZp/image.png

Autoracer seems to be sure that Red bull is on to it.

Even Mclaren's advantage in qualifying is dictated by it. They are the only team setting purple third sectors (occasionally Leclerc for a related reason), because their tires stay at optimum temperatures over the entire lap.

.
I searched for this Tweet but I couldn't find it, also not at his answers.
From which date is it?

.
It was from yesterday. This link: https://x.com/SmilexTech/status/1919823985891553704

.

[AR3-GP]

I was looking at last stint race pace from last year to this year. McLaren have improved by ~1 second, Red Bull by ~0.7 to ~0.8 seconds. There's really not much more to see. Red Bull were 4 tenths slower last year in the last stint and now overall it makes sense that they were 6 to 7 tenths slower regardless of whatever tire cooling magic McLaren have come up with.

TLDR, we were slower last year and failed to not only catch up but also got out-developed even more.

I am not sure but have people considered the fact that Red Bull car ceiling might just be this lol?

I don't think the last stint is a true depiction (for Max). It's probably slightly better than that. Verstappen was trapped in the dirty air of Russell. He was under 2 seconds from lap 41 to lap 54. So probably faster, but not as much margin as the Mclarens who could get close and overtake any car.

[pantherxxx]

Here is the video an interesting watch who knows how accurate or feasible it is,

Maybe, maybe not, but it is an interesting an idea. This kind of “switching” system (or other implementations of it) would explain why the MCL-39 doesn’t have the compromises of the RB19 and the SF-24 which were bad qualifying cars because they didn’t heat the tires up quickly enough for 1 lap pace. The drivers had always complained over the radio about the tires being cold and there were media reports about it. This is the major difference I see to how the Mclaren operates.

I’m confused though because carbon fiber is not a good conductor of heat.

He mentioined in part 1 of the video where he didn't really go into details of his ideas Red Bull using thermal cameras on the drums of teams using pit stops. The McLarens were cooler than every other team. I'm aware of them using the thermal cameras this weekend but though it was monitoring the tyres themselves not the cake tin.


If that is true than its suggesting something is going on there. And seems he is talking from an area of expertise in phase changing materials.

I thought that using phase-changing material for brake cooling would be illegal under the current F1 regulations.

If a PCM changes state (like from solid to liquid) and affects either the brake duct airflow, mass distribution, or cooling rates dynamically, it could be classified as an illegal moveable aerodynamic device or thermal control system.